As one example, Dreisbach cited an 1807 quote<\/a> from John Adams that \u201cthe Bible is the most republican book in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Dreisbach also discussed how the books of Deuteronomy<\/a> and Exodus<\/a> were the founders\u2019 two most heavily cited works. Dreisbach cautioned that the Bible was not \u201cthe only\u201d influence upon the founders and that they only made limited use of it in designing specific structures of the American government. Nevertheless, he argued, many of its foundational principles influenced the Constitution in \u201cless obvious ways.\u201d<\/p>\n The founders\u2019 belief that humans were fallen and sinful was a general theological view that informed basic conceptions of civil government. Principles such as separation of powers and checks & balances flow from a \u201cnegative view of human nature.\u201d<\/p>\n The founders viewed the era between the Israelites departure from Egypt and the coronation of Saul as the time of a \u201cHebrew Republic.\u201d Principles such as consent of the governed, popular participation in government, and prohibitions on monarchy emerged during this era.<\/p>\n Finally, Dreisbach cited several specific constitutional provisions with direct biblical antecedents, such as uniform standards of weights and measures (Deuteronomy 25:13-15<\/a>), requiring two witnesses for conviction of treason (Deuteronomy 17:6<\/a>), the Eighth Amendment (Deuteronomy 25:3<\/a>), and due process (Exodus 23<\/a>).<\/p>\n The university\u2019s School of Civic Leadership<\/a>, in conjunction with the UT-Austin Center for Middle Eastern Studies<\/a> and the Bech-Loughlin First Amendment Center<\/a> at the UT School of Law<\/a>, hosted the lecture.<\/p>\n The School of Civic Leadership, an effort to expand classical education, was originally conceived by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick<\/a>. He first proposed it in 2021 and included seed funding<\/a> in the state budget. From the beginning, it engendered significant pushback<\/a>.<\/p>\n It opened in 2023<\/a> and has hosted events<\/a> ever since. In 2025, UT System regents committed $100 million<\/a> to the program.<\/p>\n UT-Austin is a component<\/a> of the University of Texas System. The UT System is overseen by a Board of Regents<\/a> that is appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Texas Senate. Kevin Eltife<\/a> of Tyler is the current board chair.<\/p>\n \n Adam Cahn is a journalist with Texas Scorecard. A longtime political blogger, Adam is passionate about shedding light on taxpayer-subsidized higher education institutions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Professor Daniel Dreisbach explored the Bible\u2019s influence on early American history during a Monday evening lecture at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-472121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792541786_775_Adam-Writer-Final-150x150.jpg\")
<\/p>\n